This Other Deal With Iran Is Obsolete

The Algiers Accords settled more than 4,700 claims over three decades. It's time to settle them all.

By

John B. Bellinger III

Jan. 26, 2014 5:29 p.m. ET

Last week, the six-month interim agreement between Iran and the P5+1 countries to freeze Iran's nuclear program went into effect. As the U.S. and its allies now prepare to negotiate a permanent agreement with Tehran, the Obama administration should review the status of the last bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Iran—the Algiers Accords, signed 33 years ago this month and still in force but now largely obsolete.

The accords, negotiated in the waning days of the Carter administration and signed on Jan. 19, 1981, the...